Although plenty of the 2023 new movie releases have had a rough time at the box office, Barbie isn’t one of them. A little over a month after arriving in theaters, it’s become the second movie this year to cross $1 billion, following The Super Mario Bros. Movie, and in the process it surpassed fellow Warner Bros. Picture flick The Dark Knight as the studio’s highest-grossing domestic release. Well, now Barbie is set to break another huge WB record, and additionally, it looks like the plan for the movie’s home release has finally been unveiled.
Starting with that first point, as reported by Deadline, Barbie’s worldwide total currently stands at around $1.340 billion, which is just $2 million shy of what Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2 collected back in 2011. In other words, Barbie will soon surpass the box office total of the final chapter in The Boy Who Lived’s magical saga, and once that happens, it will become the highest-grossing Warner Bros. release of all time globally. So pretty soon, we can classify the Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling-led movie as the studio’s biggest success.
Along with Barbie primed to knock Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2 to second place, WB’s other biggest financial successes include Aquaman coming in at #3 with $1.148 billion, The Dark Knight Rises at #4 with $1.081 billion and Joker at #5 with $1.074 billion. Looking at the entire history of film, we can also expect Barbie to fly past MCU entry Black Panther and its $1.347 billion total, which would make it the 16th highest-grossing movie of all time. What’s more uncertain at this point is whether Barbie will overtake The Super Mario Bros. Movie’s $1.359 billion worldwide to become 2023’s highest-grossing movie, though it’s certainly fair to say its chances look good.
With the box office talk out of the way, let’s move to Barbie’s potential home release plan. As noted by The Digital Bits found/editor-in-chief Bill Hunt on Twitter, Barbie is reportedly set to come out on Blu-ray, 4K Ultra HD on October 3. Given the way digital releases are handled these days, presumably the movie will become available to watch in that specific format earlier, perhaps in early-mid September, but that hasn’t been clarified yet. It’s also unclear when Max subscribers will be able to stream Barbie, though it’s s safe bet that will happen sometime before the year is over.
Along with its commercial success, Barbie does quite well for itself critically too, boasting an 88% Tomatometer on Rotten Tomatoes and an 83% Audience Score. CinemaBlend’s own Nick Venable gave it 4.5 out of 5 stars in his review, calling it “a generation-defining film” for both fans of the Mattel toy brand and people who barely think about the doll. While one might assume moving forward with a sequel would be a no-brainer given this movie’s strong legs, Barbie 2 actually isn’t a guaranteed at the moment, as Robbie, Gosling and director/co-writer Greta Gerwig did not sign deals to return.
Needless to say we’ll let you know if Barbie 2 does get the green light, but until then, keep checking back with CinemaBlend for more coverage concerning this first movie. Don’t forget that Barbie is also being screened in IMAX for one week during September, and it’ll come with bonus footage attached.
